The cognitive and sensory control of goal-directed movement

大脑的主要功能之一是运动。虽然我们的许多日常活动看起来很简单，但它们实际上非常复杂。例如，当我们拿一杯咖啡时，我们的大脑必须确定杯子在哪里，指定移动肢体所需的肌肉命令，并产生适当的力量来确保稳定的抓握。所有这一切通常都是在我们没有意识的情况下进行的，正如我们无数次抓住一个物体，同时将注意力集中在电视或报纸文章上所证明的那样。** 这项研究计划的长期目标是更好地了解来自我们感官系统的知识和信息（即，视觉和触觉）有助于有效和高效的运动，支持我们的日常生活活动。这项研究计划将使用技术来跟踪眼睛和四肢的运动，并将这些信息与大脑活动的直接测量相结合（即，脑电图）。运动和大脑活动的同时测量将为理解大脑如何控制我们的运动提供直接的框架。在短期内，本研究计划涉及三个相互关联的研究主题的一系列调查：* 主题A：触觉反馈在抓握中的作用。目的：确定时空特性，允许抓握中的绝对视觉-触觉和触觉-触觉校准。 主题B：运动中的慢认知控制。目的：确定与涉及自上而下认知控制的行为相关的行为特征和神经机制。 主题C：支持运动的认知规则。目的：确定在多刺激和多感觉环境中运动系统编码目标属性所使用的认知规则。本文提出的研究将增强我们对大脑如何控制运动的理解。因此，从这个项目中获得的见解将支持我们对神经运动障碍的理解，以及促进运动恢复和规避运动缺陷的康复计划的发展。此外，该计划将提高我们对日常生活基本活动的理解，从而有助于确定促进新手和精英运动水平的职业培训和技能发展的技术。

One of the brain's primary functions is movement. Although many of our day-to-day movements appear simple', they are in fact incredibly complex. For example, when grasping a cup of coffee our brain must identify where the cup is, specify the muscle commands required to move the limb, and produce an appropriate amount of force to ensure a stable grasp. All of this is generally performed without our conscious awareness, as demonstrated by the numerous times we have grasped an object while focusing attention on the television or a newspaper article. ******The long-term objective of this research program is to better understand how knowledge and information from our sensory systems (i.e., vision and touch) contributes to the effective and efficient movements supporting our activities of daily living. This research program will use technology to track the movement of the eyes and the limbs and integrate that information with a direct measure of brain activity (i.e., electroencephalography). The simultaneous measurement of movement and brain activity will provide a direct framework to understand how the brain controls our movements. In the short-term, this research program involves a series of investigations in three interrelated research themes:*** Theme A: The role of haptic feedback in grasping. Objective: To determine the spatiotemporal properties permitting an absolute visuo-haptic and tactile-haptic calibration in grasping.*** Theme B: Slow' cognitive control in movement. Objective: To determine the behavioural properties and neural mechanisms associated with actions involving top-down cognitive control.*** Theme C: Cognitive rules supporting movement. Objective: To identify the cognitive rule(s) used by the motor system to encode a target property in a multi-stimulus and -sensory environment.******The research proposed herein will enhance our understanding of how the brain controls movement. Thus, insights gained from this program will support our understanding of neuromotor disorders and the development of rehabilitation programs that promote motor recovery and circumvent movement deficits. Moreover, this program will enhance our understanding of how fundamental activities of daily living are performed and therefore serve to identify techniques facilitating occupational training and skills development in novice and elite levels of sport.